Transparent iPhone 4 Faceplate is Like the Emperor’s New Clothes

It doesn’t seem likely that Steve will ever bequeath unto us a clear iPhone case design, hell, it’s hard enough to get him to pony up the white one! With the speculation that iPhone 5 is not happening this summer, I decided to take matters in to my own hands to give my iPhone 4 a fresh new look, transparency!

A few months back someone in China posted images of a completely Transparent iPhone 4, front and back. They spent many painstaking hours with a bottle of paint thinner and a disassembled iPhone. We definitely wouldn’t want to go through that effort, nor would we want to really take apart our iPhone (and void the warranty). Lucky for us, replacing the rear faceplate is a piece of cake and only takes a couple minutes. Even better, you can order a variety of rear faceplates off of eBay, plus the screwdriver, for under $20 shipped!

There are two screws on the bottom of the iPhone 4, one on either side of the dock connector. All you have to do is remove those two screws, slide the faceplate up and off, slide on the new faceplate, and screw it back up. Apple has changed the screws from a Phillips Head #00 to a 5-Point Pentalobe screws–you can buy either screwdriver for just a couple of dollars on eBay.

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The magic eBay search term to find a transparent rear faceplate is: “iPhone 4 clear back housing“. Of course you can try different variations of this. There are even a slew of different colors that border the sexy clear back: red, yellow, pink, orange, green, silver, black, white, and more.

There’s a good chance you can get away with spending less than $12.00 for this amazing iPhone 4 makeover. One of the nifty little “features” is that the backlight bleeds out into the back of the phone for a cool effect. Enjoy, and remember don’t get any finger prints on the inside of the case!

Disclaimer: Even though there’s no way to tell if the iPhone 4 faceplate has ever been removed, we cannot guarantee that it won’t void your warranty. We also take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to your iPhone. Proceed at your own risk.